The amendment would have classified the workers as public employees because they accept money from a government program, but backers said they want to focus on the other aspect.

The proposal would have amended the state constitution to create a registry that was intended to link caregivers with elderly and disabled people, as well as provide background checks and some training to the workers.

Opponents said the move was orchestrated by the Service Employees International Union, which organized the workers under the Granholm administration and collects about $6 million in dues a year, money subtracted from Medicaid checks.

The proposal was soundly defeated, 60 percent to 40 percent, by voters on Tuesday.

Dohn Hoyle, co-chairman of Citizens for Affordable Quality Home Care, said the union aspect overshadowed the registry.

The listing exists now, but hasn’t been funded by the state since October 2011.

Hoyle, executive director of The Arc Michigan, a Lansing-based advocacy group for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, said his group and others have tried to pay for maintaining the registry since then, but can’t continue.

“This can’t be the end,” he said Wednesday. “It’s too important for too many people who need this kind of help.”

Hoyle said the intention is to match the elderly and disabled with home healthcare workers who have skills to match their needs.

“We’re going to have to go back to the drawing board and figure out another way to get this done,” he said. “We need to regroup and say, ‘OK, what is it going to take to make this happen. There has to be more funding, because we can’t just limp along.”

About 40,000 Michigan residents provide in-home care to the elderly and disabled, often relatives, and are subsidized with government money through Medicare.

They are eligible for financial assistance through the Home Help Care Program, which started in 1981 and is funded through Medicaid – and will continue even with the proposal’s failure.

The workers would have been considered state employees only for the purpose of collective bargaining, meaning they would not have been eligible for a state pension or other benefits. The workers have 2.5 percent to 2.7 percent of the payment deducted by the state and sent to the union as dues.

The proposal had the support of a variety of senior and disability rights activists, including the Michigan Disability Rights Coalition, the Area Agencies on Aging Association of Michigan, Michigan Paralyzed Veterans of America, the Alliance of Retired Americans.

But it was the support from the SEIU that attracted the most attention. The union offered at least $5.5 million of the $9 million spent on the proposal.

Critics, such as the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, accused the union of orchestrating the proposal to collect the dues money.

Hoyle has said the Midland-based conservative free-market advocacy group “has an ax to grind” with unions, but said the SEIU connection has possibly prevented lawmakers from working with the disability advocates.